Trivial
by awordycontradiction
Summary: Now it was Rebekah's turn to listen as his footsteps marched away with a beat that would've been identical to her heart.


The Mystic Falls star quarterback leisurely revolved the smooth texture of the balloon over the pads of his fingertips. He watched with careful blue eyes as the sallow light from the overhead beams reflected off the rubber. The school was quiet and calm and nothing like he was used to feeling. He let the balloon go, and watched it float into the sea of red surrounding him. Matt reflexively tensed, hearing a distant echo of heels on the linoleum tile. The steps grew louder as they entered the still mid-decorated gym. "Matt?" A crisp voice muttered, mildly surprised. "What are you doing here?" The seventeen year old turned, the sole of his shoe caught on a tattered streamer. "I came to clean up for the dance we never had." He didn't say hello, but his eyes lit up just enough for his company's comfort, before his gaze averted back to the ground. "But no one else seems to be coming."

Rebekah gave a curt nod. "Yes, well, I'm just here because I've seemed to have misplaced my coat." As to prove her point, Rebekah's eyes wandered around the room. Matt eyed her carefully. "Haven't seen it." He shrugged, digging his hands into the confines of his Letterman jacket. "Shouldn't you be packing for your little camping trip?" Rebekah's glossed lips twitched. She didn't answer Matt, she just slowly walked through the red balloons, remembering Stefan swaying her back and forth, discussing the finer points to music she never heard, movies she missed premiers of. It was a lovely night away from reality.

"I've had this unsettling feeling all day." Rebekah mused, kicking a flock of the weightless bubbles from her path. "I came here to remember how happy I was last night. Well, before.." Matt felt the hairs on his neck rise, she didn't need to finish the sentence. "Last night?" Rebekah scoffed loudly at the teenager, "I know you were here, Matt." Matt Donovan frowned. "Look-" She waved him off with a tired gesture of her pale hand.

He didn't want to disturb her. She was caught in a memory, somewhere far better than this. He felt bad for her. Against his better judgment, it seemed he always would. She wanted nothing more than to be wanted, and the reason she was so harsh was because she couldn't see anything but a motive behind a person. Matt couldn't live like that, and as he watched the blonde original rock herself back and forth, tip toeing between the red balloons, he realized, neither could she.

He hadn't thought of it like that before. He never thought Rebekah could resent who she was. But thinking back to how he raided her home the previous night, how he found nothing to implicate she was anything _but_ the perpetual seventeen year old goddess, it only heightened the realization that everything she had said to Stefan was probably the truth.

"I don't blame you." Matt stated, his voice was gentle and honest. He was sick of hiding from emotions, and he was sick of punishing a girl who was so alone. "What are you talking about?" Rebekah asked, faintly annoyed that she was disturbed. "What you said last night, about how you want to be human and go to prom and base your life off cheesy eighties movies, - I don't blame you." Rebekah's cheeks blushed, but her eyes were dark, boring confidently into his.

"You don't find it all _trivial_?" The original asked, any trace of confidence gone, her walls firmly in place. "Nik does, so did Kol." Rebekah' sobered, malice and skepticism no longer coating her tone. Matt wanted to reach out, grab her hand, do something. He lost Vicki, it couldn't have been easy no matter how long you've been alive. "I'm sorry, Rebekah." The blonde pointed her chin to the floor. She was in no mood for sympathy. "Well, like you said, I should be packing."

Matt sighed, realizing that it wouldn't be easy. "Okay." He nodded. "Be careful." The teen grunted, then turned; ready to leave the high school, ready to go back to hating Rebekah Mikaelson. "Matt!" The crisp accent called out and against his judgment, he turned, because she didn't deserve the blunt of his confusion. "If by some sheer miracle this cure really does exist, and I can become human, would you maybe want to watch a silly eighties movie with me?"

The lightness of the question really surprised him. After everything he had done, after what everyone he knew put her through, she still wanted to be around him. "You know Rebekah, even if there's no such thing as a cure, you're still more human than all of us." Matt gave her one of those smiles that she liked, the ones that made his blue eyes ignite with her sublime vision. Now it was Rebekah's turn to listen as his footsteps marched away with a beat that _would've_ been identical to her heart.


End file.
